Spectrum Games (52)
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27/07/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Adventure Of St Bernard - Classic ZX Spectrum Game [source]
Adventures Of St Bernard
Well what can I say, apart from that this game is crap? Really, really crap.
I was unfortunate enough to buy this for my Speccy back in the day, and my hard earned £1.99 (I got the Mastertronic re-release) was duly wasted.
Would you believe that Carnell actually had the gall to charge £5.95 for this turgid piece of 'arcade action' originally? It wasn't even worth the £1.99 that Mastertronic were asking for a year later. Still, you've got to look back and laugh eh?
At least Carnell redeemed themselves with the excellent text adventure 'The Wrath of Magra'....
The whole point to the game was to rescue your 'mistress' (oohh matron) from the clutches of the abominable snowman. We should have rescued the gamers from this abominable game.
The inlay instructions actually used words like 'intrepid' and 'icy wastelands' to convey the terror and action of the situation. Well it doesn't work quite like that...
The game is a horizontally scrolling affair (supposed to arcade action), and you control the hero who must fend off attacks from wolves and jump over broken bits of the icy ground.
Wolves always attack from your rear, so you can scare them away by turning to face them or if you time it right, bite them (use your imagination) to kill them outright.
After you have got far enough (the background scrolls painfully slowly) you will reach stage two. Now you have to jump over water patches and avoid the walrusses that poke their heads up through the ice-holes.
If you have the luck or patience you'll reach stage three where you have to climb a hill and avoid the rolling snowballs. If you make it past this it'll be more by luck than judgement - I never ever did, and never ever will.
You have to laugh as the instructions actually ask:
"Will it go on forever? Is she really worth it? These and many more questions
can be answered in this multi-level, fast moving, colourful
arcade style game."
They also boldy state that the game was written in full machine code, featuring arcade action and cartoon style graphics.
I honestly can't see how this was written in machine code. The controls are so un-responsive it's beyond funny. Your character takes longer to turn than a jug of cream - and timing jumps is well... you've got more chance of winning the lottery.
Oh - and a special mention must go to the sound. It truly is a revolutionary use of the Spectrum's beeper.
On a positive note I suppose the main sprite is quite nicely drawn - it's a shame the animation on it is crap.
Maybe I'm being too hard on this game. It did come out in the early days of '83 so I've got to cut it some slack, but really, play this for comedy value only. It's a load of pish.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download any other arcade game (but not this). Alternatively you could try and play something else online.
GENRE: Arcade Game (Even though it's slower than bullet time)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Carnell Software / Mastertronic
DEVELOPER(S): No idea.
PRICE: £5.95 then re-released by Mastertronic at £1.99 - UK
Hair raising arcade action in this classic game...
Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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21/07/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Tank Trax - ZX Spectrum Classic Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Tank Trax
Yet another budget spectrum game that was released by Mastertronic for £1.99. It had originally been released by Amoeba Software at £5.95 - no way was it ever worth that.
This arcade game was a very simple turn based affair designed for two players - you couldn't play against the computer. I ended up playing against myself some of the time back in 1985... but to be fair a little bit of fun could be squeezed out of this game.
I suppose this was a strategy arcade game which had you with your tank against an opponent, also with a tank. There were options to choose such as altering wind speeds and you could also choose to battle it out in mountains or foothills.
Finally you could choose to duel in the daytime or at night - where both thanks were 'hidden' from view. Mind you, you could actually tell where the tanks were sitting if you looked carefully.
But first I've got to mention the menu music which was a little bizarre to say the least. Listen to that beeper sing!
Anyway to defeat your opponent you had to elevate your gun barrel and choose the velocity of the shot you wanted to fire. Unfortunately both tanks were static, so all you could do was point your gun up or down and choose the strength of your shot. If the tanks had been moveable it would have added a lot more to the game.
Anyway, there was also wind speed to take into account (which could be variable if you wanted) and those pesky mountains which were usually in your way. Once you took your shot it either hit your opponent or blasted part of the landscape away. Then you had to wait whilst the other guy took a shot. The game went tit for tat like this until someone landed a direct hit.
A direct hit treated you to a loverrrly rendition of 'the last post' in true beeper style. Which you couldn't stop. And had to listen to every time you played. Which became annoying after about three listens.
As usual for a classic game of the era you could enter your name in the high score table - but it seems that the better you were the less score you got! Check this out as I score a direct hit with my first shot and at night...
It then has the cheek to show me this! Four points for a direct hit on the first shot at night? You gotta be sh*ttin me!
All in all this retro game is a reasonable amount of fun for two players. It's got loads of retro charm and it's simplicity makes it seem a little bit better than it really is.
Not quite crap yet definately not good, this offering is a nice way for a couple of friends to waste half an hour. Give it a go to remember what Spectrum software was like in the early days.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Tank Trax for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade Game (Arcade Strategy I suppose)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Amoeba Software / Mastertronic
DEVELOPER(S): C Steel, B Baker
PRICE: £5.95 then re-released by Mastertronic at £1.99 - UK
Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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09/07/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Hysteria - ZX Spectrum classic game [source]
ZX Spectrum Hysteria
Another classic game for the ZX Spectrum from those excellent folk at Special FX software.
Once again the fantastic Joffa Smith was the main programmer behind the game, and once again his attention to detail and overall polish soon becomes apparent.
This review is a tribute to Jof.
This arcade game was released in 1987 by Software Projects and was met with a lot of praise (let's be honest, most of Jof's games were, his name attached to a game was generally a seal of quality.)
An interesting back story really set the scene...
Someone is changing the future by altering the past. A powerful entity is being summoned forwards through time in an attempt to disrupt the future balance of power. You are the last survivor of the 'time corps', and it is now up to you to prevent this from happening and restore order to the timeline.
It was an interesting slant on some good old classic arcade action! Anyway - the game was a parallax scrolling headbutt em up / shoot em up game that focussed on frantic action and excellent powerups.
You began the game armed with a 'sonic headbutt', which although short-ranged was still pretty powerful. Now comes the clever bit. As you run across the scrolling landscape destroying and evading enemies, worms will periodically pop up from the ground.
Collecting a worm by walking or flying over it will enable you to select a different weapon if you wish. To activate the current weapon type (indicated by an arrow above the icons at the bottom of the screen) press down and fire. The icon flashes, and you are powered up nicely. This was done a little bit 'Nemesis' style I suppose (I wish Jof could have coded the Speccy version of Nemesis - it would have been fantastic).
The same weapon powerups could also be collected and chosen by walking over a lemon! So, a lemon or a worm could increase your firepower - genious stuff!
You are also packing an energy conversion kit which allowed you to change ordinary objects into a powerful array of stunningly useful mega-utilities!
Destroying certain hostile characters and objects will leave behind a clue, which would lead to the identity of one of the conspirarators (symbolized by a jigsaw piece).
Collecting these pieces exposes the entity which will appear (as a classic arcade boss) to battle you. Hit it enough times and it will retreat to another time - allowing you to move to the next level and continue your task in another era.
You only have a limited energy supply which is depleted a little each time you are hit. It was topped up on each new level though. You also have a shield which is to be used sparingly.
On Release:
Once again this game was well recieved and was regarded as an essential purchase for your Spectrum. Apart from the gameplay, what was impressive was the attention to detail. For instance you could set the game background to monochrome or colour, turn the sound effects off and entering your name in the hall of fame was superb! Utterly cool.
We were also treated to another great piece of plip-plop music which had become a trademark since the technique first appeared in Ping Pong.
Some gamers tended to prefer Jof's other uber scroller Cobra (which was a fantastic game and hilarious to boot), but Hysteria was regarded as a top arcade game in it's own right. For me this game just edges Cobra - probably because I can actually play this one quite well and I've always been crap at Cobra! Doesn't stop me trying it again and again though....
The Test of Time:
Well Hysteria is still fun to play. The graphics move very nicely and the parallax scrolling is top notch (amongst the best on a ZX Spectrum). The neat touches really set it apart from other arcade games of 1987. Once again from top notch stuff from Jof and Special FX Software.
Get yourself hysterical and play this. Now.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Hysteria for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade Game (Side Scroller)
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: Software Projects
DEVELOPER(S): Jonathan M Smith, Karen Davies, Stephen Wahid, Tony Pomfret
PRICE: £7.95 - UK
Classic scrolling arcade action... note the high score table too.
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02/07/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Jonathan Smith [source]
As most of us ZX Spectrum fans will know - one of the greatest ever coders on our humble 8-bit machine sadly passed away on 26/06/2010
Jonathan Smith (or Joffa) as he became known was responsible for some of the greatest ever titles and arcade conversions for the Speccy.
I never met Jof in person, but he was kind enough to provide me with an interview about his ZX Spectrum coding days last September.
Not only that he kept contact with me (a true legend kept in contact with little old me) and kept providing me with insights into his game coding days, (not only on the Spectrum but also on the Atari ST and other formats), and also his special effects work.
Thanks for the great games, thanks for plip-plop music, thanks for the laughs (particularly on the World Of Spectrum forums), and thanks for the brilliant YouTube videos.
And now I think it's time for another shot on Cobra - perhaps I can finally complete it after all these years.
Rest in peace, Joffa.
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24/06/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Game - Galakzions - Classic ZX Spectrum Game [source]
Galakzions ZX Spectrum
Since I'm in ultra-retro game mode at the moment, and the last game I reviewed was Galaxian, I'll stick with it and look at Galakzions from Mikro-Gen.
This game was basically an un-official version of Galaxian, and I tell you what, it's actually not bad.
There is no loading screen (it was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 - a time when you could 'copy' arcade originals and get away with by changing the name) and the main menu screen is extremely basic.
Anyway - 99% of you will know the score. Alien space ships attack in the usual Space Invaders formation at the top of the screen, moving left and right in unison.
You are at the bottom part of the screen and can move left, right and fire. And that's it. Simplicity itself - but this is what makes the game so good.
In a twist from Space Invaders some enemy ships would break from formation and 'swoop' down the screen towards you, firing as they went.
As you cleared each wave, the amount of swoopers increased, making each wave more difficult than the last.
Just like Galaxian the game featured a backdrop of a scrolling starfield. There were also three 'speeds' you could play the game at: Slow, Normal or Fast.
Play it on fast for a real challenge.
There isn't really much more to say about this; it's a version of Galaxian and it's good. Considering this is an earlier ZX Spectrum game it's pretty decent and plays nice and smoothly. Good stuff.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Galakzions for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade Game (Shoot Em Up)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Mikro-Gen
DEVELOPER(S): Stephen Townsend
PRICE: £5.95 - UK
More classic arcade action...
Arcade Games and Classic Games
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18/06/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Game - Galaxian - Classic ZX Spectrum Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Galaxian
Surely Galaxian is one of the most well known arcade games of all time?
Atari-soft treated us to the official ZX Spectrum conversion of Namco's classic game in 1984 - and to be fair it did the arcade original justice.
Galaxian basically expanded on the formula pioneered by Space Invaders. As in Space Invaders, Galaxian featured hordes of attacking aliens that took pot shots at the players ship at the bottom of the screen.
Galaxian added a further element of gameplay by having alien ships dive bomb the player's ship (which was called the 'Galax').
Atari-soft managed to cram in the arcade game features, including the opening sequence which proudly stated that 'we are the galaxians' and displayed how many points you would get for each ship type destroyed.
The opening got you in the mood for Galaxian:
The gameplay was relatively simple. Swarm after swarm of alien ships attacked your ship which could be moved left and right at the bottom part of the wraparound screen.
Your ship could only fire sparingly by default, but rearmed instantly when an enemy was blown out of the stars. Once you defeated one swarm of invaders it was replaced by another more aggressive and challenging swarm. As you progressed the amount of 'dive bombing' aliens increased which made things more difficult for the player.
This repeated infinitely until all of your lives were lost.
A plain starfield also scrolled in the background too which looked quite nice.
On Release:
Well Galaxian was considered a bit 'old hat' by 1984 - and even though this version was pretty faithful to the arcade original gamers wanted more. I suppose with games such as Manic Miner, 3D Starstrike and Night Gunner to play, the concept of Galaxian was a bit limited. At £7.99 it was also overpriced.
The test of time:
Well it's not bad to play and captures the spirit of the old arcade machine (which I can just remember). In fact, it's so retro now that it's more relevant today than it was back in the mid 1980's. If you're a fan of Space Invaders or Galaxian then give this a go.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Galaxian for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade Game (Shoot Em Up)
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Atarisoft
DEVELOPER(S): David Aubrey Jones
PRICE: £7.99 - UK
Classic Arcade Action... (needs a decent player though!)
Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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11/06/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Krakout - Classic ZX Spectrum Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Krakout
The Spectrum went through a spate of breakout clones, and this was yet another one from the folks that brought us Trailblazer and Avenger.
Okay, so it's basically Breakout or Arkanoid except turned on it's side. Here you bat from either side of the screen rather than the bottom. One cool feature of the game was the fact that you could select to bat on the left hand or right hand side at the beginning.
You could also select from six 'speeds' of play which added a little variety to the gameplay.
There was some real 'clutching at straws' back story about an 'awesome ogre', but we won't even go there.
So we've got coloured blocks, a bat and a ball. Time for some classic arcade action. Game on.
As usual for an Arkanoid type game there were various powerups and block behaviour within the game.
For example some bricks when hit rolled over to reveal bonuses. Bonuses that could be got included:
Glue: The Ball sticks to the bat
Bomb: There is a massive explosion destroying adjacent blocks (wo-hoo!)
Shield: Makes a barrier appear behind you (nice)
Missile: Gives you one missile to fire (not very exciting)
Slow down: Slows the ball down slightly (handy)
Times two: Doubles scoring (More precious points)
Double bat: Gives you another bat in front of your present bat. (super!)
Extra man: Gives you an extra life
Expand: Makes your bat expand (no dodgy comments please)
Aside from all this you had the blocks that took multiple hits to destroy and the aliens floating around the screen which could divert the path of the ball if struck by it.
If you like Arkanoid then you will probably like this game. It's easy to pick up and play, the graphics are okay for the era and the controls are responsive enough. The fart noise that accompanies the destruction of an alien becomes a tad annoying after a while though.
On release:
Well this game perhaps came at a time when us ZX Spectrum gamers were becoming a little fed up with Breakout type games. I remember Crash magazine gave it less than favourable review - but this was a rare occasion where I didn't really agree with them. At only £4.99 this game represented great value for money and was a playable Arkanoid type variant. It ended up being a reasonable hit for Gremlin Graphics.
The test of time:
This classic game is easy to get into, playable and you know what you are getting. Not a bad way to pass half an hour and to be fair this game hasn't aged too badly at all.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Krakout for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade game (Breakout Clone)
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: Gremlin Graphics
DEVELOPER(S):Rob Toone, Andy Green, Greg Holmes, Ben Dalglish, Marco Duroe
PRICE: £4.99 - UK
Classic arcade action in this breakout variant:
Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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04/06/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Hunchback 2 - ZX Spectrum Classic Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Hunchback 2
Well ZX Spectrum gamers loved Hunchback by Ocean Software - which is strange because it was, in the main pretty much crap.
With it being popular a sequel was on the cards, and out came this follow up platform game in late 1984. Was this incarnation any better and would it contain any decent arcade action?
Well sort of. Once again poor Esmerelda had been captured and was impisoned in a castle stronghold - so you would play out your rescue over seven screens.
The game was of the classic platform game variety, with our hero having to collect bells in order to progress to the next screen. As well as being able to jump your game character could also grab onto ropes and travel up and down them.
There were the usual items to avoid such as arrows flying across the screen, bouncing fireballs, bats, large rats and moving platforms atop pulleys had to be negotiated with care.
The menu screen was quite nicely presented and had a synthesised version of the William Tell Overture (which was quite good before the advent of plip plop music). It certainly had that 'Ocean' feel to it anyway.
You began the game with five lives - and you needed them. The game was all about timing your jumps and waiting for the right moment to go up or down a rope.
You had to collect all of the small bells (by walking over them) on each screen before making your way to the big bell where you would be transported to the following screen.
It would take a while to master, but once you knew the pattern it was easy to work your way through the current level you were on.The worst part was that if you were killed at any point the current screen was re-set and you had to do it all again. A bit of a bummer that.
All in all Hunchback II was an improvement on the first game, and it was a decent enough platform / arcade game. The traversing and climbing of ropes was a nice feature that made it stand out from other platformers a litte. Even so, it was never in the same league as the likes of Manic Miner or Jet Set Willy.
On Release:
This game was highly anticipated due to the popularity of the first game. I reckon it was a big improvement on the first offering and was more playable. The graphics were improved also - although the main character could have been animated better. Still, this game was playable enough and sold plenty of copies.
The Test Of Time:
It hasn't aged at all well. I just can't get into it and can't be bothered to re-learn the patterns to each screen. It all get's pretty frustrating due to some dodgy collision detection and having to re-do each screen from scratch every time you lose a life. I'd rather play many other arcade games of this type - even the uber difficult Fahrenheit 3000 grabs me more than this. I do like the high score table entry though. Not bad - but not one of the best.
It used to be classic arcade action.... but now it's so so:
Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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31/05/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Rambo - Classic ZX Spectrum Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Rambo
Ahhh good old Rambo - the ultimate 80's action icon?
Stallone's on screen larger than life character was bound to make the transition to 8-bits, and Ocean Software won the rights to convert Rambo to the ZX Spectrum in 1985.
Surely such a well known action character would lead to a classic arcade game? Well, sort of...
According to the instructions this classic game took place in approximately 1 million sq. feet (scale) of jungle which featured the P.O.W. camp, a secret Temple plus many different types of terrain.
Good old Colonel Trautman, had given you very precise orders...
Find the P.O.W. camp, photograph the evidence then make your way north to the extraction point where a helicopter would whisk you to the safety of your command centre in Thailand.
Just like in the movie you were not to engage the enemy or attempt to rescue any POW's you may find.
Of course on finding captured soldiers and hordes of enemy soldiers your fighting instincts took over and it was time to kick some ass, in true Rambo/Arcade game style.
You had to free the captive POW (who was tied up) and then head north towards the extration point to where the chopper would be waiting.
The game was presented in standard 8 way scrolling, with the jungle scenery moving nicely around our hero. Of course there were plenty of enemy soldiers skulking around the playing area too, and in the beginning you could use the trusty knife or grenades to take them out.
The grenades were very effective but obviously noisy - so using them would draw more enemy soldiers towards you. The knife required more skill to use but was also more stealthy and kept contact with the enemy at a minimum. Even so, for some reason the bad guys 'exploded' when you threw a knife at them! They should've only done this with explosive tipped arrows?
Further weapons such as a machine gun, rocket launcher and the famous bow and arrow could be found in the jungle (in a different location each time you played), but only one could be selected and used at a time. The variety of weapons was a good feature and added something more to the arcade action.
Basically the aim of the game was to gain access to the camp (through a hole in the fence), rescue the soldier named Banks then head north to the chopper. Once in the chopper you had to locate the helipad where more hostages could be liberated. With the hostages on board it was time for a final duel with the enemy gunship before flying to safety.
On Release:
The movies had already been popular so the arcade game ended up being popular too. This game was generally regarded as a reasonable effort in the arcade genre, and for a movie tie in was pretty well executed. It did well due to the popularity of the character.
The Test Of Time:
Well, I want what every other Spectrum games player wants, for this game to love me as much as I, love it! But unfortunately - it's not quite there.
Rambo is still fairly playable, but has aged more than other arcade games from the same era. The characters tend to flicker and it just doesn't play as well as the likes of Commando. Not bad, and worth it for pure nostalgia. Nice loading screen and cool 'drum beats' rendition of the film music too. Try it - cos if you don't I'll give you a war you won't believe.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Rambo for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1985
RELEASED BY: Ocean Software
DEVELOPER(S): David Anderson, F David Thorpe
PRICE: £7.95 - UK
Our hero wastes a few bad guys in classic arcade action:Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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24/05/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Starmaker - ZX Spectrum Classic Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Starmaker
Starmaker was a strategy game/management game released for the ZX Spectrum in 1986 by R&R Software.
The games coder Dave Hawkins also went on to develop adventure games such as Wizards Warrior and Stranded.
This game was something different on the Speccy - where most games player were used to arcade games, adventure games or platform action.
The aim of the game was to run a music band and drive them to commercial success.
After choosing your skill level you would begin. After naming your band you started with a small amount of cash, although you do have the option of borrowing from the bank. If you want you can go straight into it and start on the long road to pop stardom. I wonder if Simon Cowell used this to hone his skills?
You can choose from varying options from making a record (either a single or an album), performing a concert, advertising (only if you have a record to advertise) and also producing some merchandise such as posters and T-shirts.
To generate cash you have to sell records, starting with singles before moving on to albums. If you get it right your bands popularity will increase and you will generate more money. Other positives will happen such as deejays interviewing the band, slots on tv will reap more cash and so on. Just watch out for dodgy geezers selling fake tickets to one of your concerts!
A rocking gig in this classic game:
If you play it right you may never have to borrow from Mr Jones.
The interface is nice and easy to follow, with icons and options clearly displayed allowing you to make your next managerial choice (the phone ringing icon when you phone Ron Static to produce some merchandise is excellent!)
At each month end you see what position in the charts your single reached and how much of your merchandise you have sold. This in turn will give you a figure of revenue generated - hopefully at a profit!
All in all this classic game was very enjoyable back in the day, and you know what, it's still fun to play all these years later.
On Release:
This game picked up a bit of a cult following back in 1986 and did reasonably well. It was never a huge hit but a lot of gamers enjoyed it as it was playable and something different (I was more of an arcade games player but really liked this back then). At only £2.99 it was great value too.
The test of time:
Like I say this classic game is still plenty of fun. It's got oodles of retro charm, is easy to play and once you start generating some cash is plenty of fun. Give it a go.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Starmaker for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Management Game
RELEASE DATE: 1986
RELEASED BY: R&R Software
DEVELOPER(S): Dave Hawkins
PRICE: £2.59 - UK
Star making those stars in classic gaming action:
Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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09/05/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Mr Freeze - ZX Spectrum classic game [source]
ZX Spectrum Mr Freeze
This slightly odd platform/arcade game was released for the Speccy by Firebird in 1984.
It sold for £2.50 before being re-released at £1.99 - and was just about worth it. Just.
In the game you played that part of Mr Freeze, a cool customer if ever there was one. Ahem.
The challenge was to de-ice six compartments of a refrigerator using your trusty flame thrower - so the game was spread over a walloping massive six screens!
There were the usual hazards to watch out for in an arcade game based in a fridge. Nasties such as flying food, guardian robots and lasers of course.
Also stationary ice-cubes would prove to be deadly and falling through any gaps in the shelves would take away one of your six lives. Six screens, six lives, you had to stay ice-cool to overcome the excitement in this game...
You could de-ice the compartments in any order you fancied - so it was possible to traverse between the screens, which were linked in tried and tested flick screen fashion.
To de-ice a compartment you had to walk into the De Ice button located at the top of the screen - your flame thrower was actually just used to 'scare away' nasties (it didn't kill them, merely turned them away from you)
The main thing to avoid was the laser which would try and zap you as you climbed any set of stairs. A little tactical thinking was required when planning your route upwards in any of the compartments.
The game would have been decent but for one thing: The controls are more stodgy than my mum's Bolognaise. Getting our hero to jump a gap or move off a ladder is fiddly and usually happens more by luck than judgement. If it wasn't for this the game would be okay - as it stands it was (and still is) a bit of a frozen turkey.
On release:
Well this arcade game did not do Firebird any favours - although they would go on to do better. It was generally regarded back then as poor to average - but the awful controls and low amount of screens made sure it generally recieved a 'cold reception'. Even at £2.50 it was frozen out in favour of other bargain offerings. There were far better platform games you could get for your lolly too.
The test of time:
I did have this back in the day (picked up with my £1.99 pocket money) and managed to complete it despite the crappy controls. I never played it again - and writing this review has brought back all those bad memories. It could have been an okay game - but believe me it isn't. Even the little game over ditty is odd.
It's time to give this game a go for pure nostalgia and laughability. You'll soon see that it's not nICE.
We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Mr Freeze for the ZX Spectrum if you want to see a poor-ish game. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
GENRE: Arcade Game (Platform game)
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Firebird Software
DEVELOPER(S): David T Clark
PRICE: £2.50 then £1.99 - UK
Stay cool in some insipid arcade action:It's game over (thankfully) - hang onto your joystick in this not so classic game:
Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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30/04/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - David M Webb [source]
David M Webb was a programmer and author of many books for the ZX Spectrum
His books included 'Advanced Spectrum Machine Language' and 'Supercharge your Spectrum' - which were both big sellers.
Many gamers will remember his 3D classic arcade game Starion, and anyone who was into arcade gaming on the ZX Spectrum from the early days may well remember the Pac-Man style game Spookyman.
We were lucky enough to catch up with David who was more than happy to talk about his Spectrum coding days.
1: What was the first computer you ever programmed on, and how old were you at the time?
In 1978, at 13, the parent-teachers association at my school (Fulford Comprehensive, York) used some of their school fete money to buy a teletype terminal and a 300-baud acoustic modem, and we were given an account on the DEC-10 mainframe at York University. So with that, we could write and run basic programs.The machine had no display, but printed results on rolls of white paper – it was like the machine that used to print the football scores on TV, and very noisy. Games like Lunar Lander were feasible, but in slow motion – you would send a command, and it would move the lander one space and print the results. One of the first programs I wrote was an unbeatable noughts and crosses.
The terminal had a punch-tape reader/writer, so we could store our programs (written in BASIC) on rolls of pink paper punch tape, which fit ideally in a school blazer pocket. Lunchtimes at Fulford were fun.
2: How did you get into the games development scene? Did you start with BASIC before moving into other languages?
Later, in 1981, I bought a ZX81, and taught myself machine language from a book. I wrote a toolkit for the 1K ZX81, which was the first program I sold to Melbourne House, and later a toolkit for the ZX81 with the 16K RAM pack hanging off the pack. The 16K RAM pack cost GBP50, and was notorious for being wobbly, so you had to keep the machine on a solid table to avoid losing memory.
BASIC was, well, basic – you couldn’t do much with an interpreted language on a machine running at 4MHz. Machine language allowed much more. There was a Zilog book called “Programming the Z80” which had details of exactly how many clock cycles each instruction took to execute. Every cycle counted for a top-notch game.
3: How did you end up at Melbourne House? And what was the company like to work for?
I never worked for Melbourne House as such. They were one of my publishers, and paid me royalties based on a percentage of sales of my works, but there was no employment contract. I was still at Woking Sixth Form College and then Oxford University while writing the books and games. A company called Abbex also published two of my games.
4: What was the first game you had published?
After the ZX 81 Toolkit, my first game for the Spectrum was Spookyman, which was not unlike Pac Man.
5: What did you like about programming on the Spectrum and what was your impression of the machine the first time you used it?
Well, the big breakthrough was that it had colour, and a decent screen resolution (256x192 was big news compared to the ZX81), and a separate graphics chip, so the CPU didn’t spend half its time painting the screen, as the ZX80 and ZX81 did. The bad news was that you could only have 2 colours per 8x8 pixel block, so games had to work around that. So there was one memory block of 6KB for the monochrome data (256x192/8), and then a different block for the colour, which was much smaller (32x24=768 bytes). Still, for the 16KB spectrum, that took up quite a bit of RAM. It was certainly built down to a price – hence the membrane keyboard.
For my later games, I used a Memotech machine to write in assembler, and port the code across the RS232 link in the Expansion Pack for testing.
6: And what did you not like about programming on the Spectrum?
See above
7: How did you get into writing books about programming?
Melbourne House asked me to write the books. The first was “Supercharge Your Spectrum” and the second was “Advanced Spectrum Machine Language”. The first one had more mass-market appeal, because BASIC programmers could use it. The second one was, as its title suggests, aimed at more sophisticated users.
8: Did you prefer writing games or books?
I enjoyed both. The books were a bit more tedious because of all the proof-reading, but it was cool to see my name in print at 18. The games were intellectually challenging, because I had to stretch the capabilities of the machine to new boundaries by writing really neat and efficient code.
9: How did you manage to animate smooth vectors and a machine as humble as the ZX Spectrum?
This was a bit of a breakthrough at the time. The key to it was some very efficient code for copying the 4K of active screen area (256x128) during the screen refresh. I had to draw each frame in a separate block of RAM (4K) and then copy it across to the graphics area when the machine had finished drawing that part of the screen to the CRT. So I wrote a routine treated the screen memory like a stack, using every register of the CPU (including the alternates), pushing and popping 16 bytes at a time.
10: Did you move onto the 16-bit machines once the Spectrum scene began to fade?
No. My last game was the Amstrad version of Starion, written in the summer of 1985. The C64 version was programmed (badly) by someone else, but I got a royalty for the game design. Then I had 1 year left to focus on my maths degree.
11: Can you tell us what path you took once you had moved on from the ZX Spectrum? Are you still active in the games industry today?
No, I could see in 1986 that it would soon be impossible for a single programmer to turn out a top-class game, because of the increasing power of computers. So with polyphonic sound and much better displays, it would take teams of people to produce a good game, including composers and graphics designers, and a lot of business knowledge to run that as a company. I didn’t have the business knowledge, and I didn’t just want to be a programmer.By then I had been investing my royalties in the stock market, and this interest took me into investment banking in the City of London at the age of 21. I moved to Hong Kong in 1991, and this is now my home. I was an investment banker until 1994, then worked for a local conglomerate as in-house adviser for 4 years, then retired in 1998 (aged 32) to focus on my investments in HK small-caps, and set up a non-profit site, http://www.webb-site.com/, to push for corporate and economic governance reforms.
Here is an example of David's vectror graphics from the demo Show 3D:
My programming skills still come in handy – I wrote a lot of VBscript and Visual Basic to automate the site, which uses a MySQL database back-end.
12: Were you a games player back then? Did you have any favourite games be it your own or games by other software houses?
Not really. Writing them was more fun. I do recall a couple of good games: Manic Miner and Chequered Flag.
13: Which other developers on the Spectrum impressed you during that time?
I can’t remember any, but it was always cool to see people pushing the envelope with what the machine could do.
14: And finally - with the whole retro game scene booming do you ever fancy writing another game for the Spectrum?
Yes, but I will never find the time to do it!
Once again many thanks to David for taking the time to do this.Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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29/04/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Spookyman - ZX Spectrum Classic Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Spookyman
This is a rare and very early arcade game on the good old ZX Spectrum, released waaaay back in the early days (1982!) by Abbex Electronics.
The games author David Webb would go on to write some popular programming books for the Speccy as well as creating the vector graphics arcade classic Starion.
As you may have guessed, Spookyman was basically a pac man clone, and was a pretty good rendition of the classic arcade game on the Speccy.
Spookyman managed to cram in plenty of the arcade game features such as pac dots, power pills, hearts, clubs and diamonds to eat and of course the spectral looking ghosts who roam around the maze.
Also there was the 'wrap around' part of the maze where you exit from one side of the screen and re-appear on the other, which was always useful for getting yourself out of a sticky situation.
It must also be said that this game moves at a fair old pace. Your Pac Man style character zips around the maze rapidly and it can take a few plays to get used to it. Once you get the hang of the speed though you can nip around that maze and avoid the nasties pretty well.
A good feature of this classic game is that when you eat the power pill the ghosts stay 'eatable' for a decent amount of time, giving you plenty of opportunity to chew through them and rack up that high score. Incidentally the high score can be re-set any time you wish- another nice little feature.
All in all, if you like Pac Man then give this one a go, it really is testament to early ZX Spectrum Games.
GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1982
RELEASED BY: Abbex Electronics
DEVELOPER(S): David Webb
PRICE: £5.95 - UK
Spookyman was doing well until he was distracted by someone... classic arcade action:
Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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20/04/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Kong Strikes Back - Classic ZX Spectrum Game [source]
Kong Strikes Back ZX Spectrum
An earlier game from Ocean Software which was obviously inspired by the arcade games Kong and Mr Do's Wild Ride.
This game was released on the ZX Spectrum early in 1985 - and was a pretty good twist on the platform genre. As usual, the mighty Kong had kidnapped yet another damsel in distress and it was up to you to rescue the fair maiden. All done against the clock of course.
This time though the setting was a fairground, with Kong and the damsel perched atop a rollercoaster type structure.
Why were damsels always in distress in 80's computer games?
Anyway, just like the classic arcade game the beast would roll things towards you, in this case he would hurtle rollercoaster cars along the tracks which took one of your four lives if they hit you.
You had a limited number of bombs which could destroy a coaster-car, but could only be used when you were standing on a 'flat' section of the track. Luckily there were ladders dotted around the track which you could use to evade the oncoming cars and conserve your ammo. Timing your movements around the track was the key to success.
You had to follow the 'track' from the bottom to the top, your little character moving smoothly and following the track lines well.
If you avoided the roller-cars and made it to the top the maiden was rescued, and you were awarded bonus points for the amount of time you had left to spare. There were also bonus items to collect which boosted your score, and you could gain extra lives by racking up a lot of points.
There were four screens to play through and once you had completed the fourth you were sent back to the beginning with the difficulty increased and more nasties to contend with.
On Release:
This game was a moderate hit for Ocean and was generally well recieved. Spectrum gaming magazine Crash awared it an overall score of 73% - pretty good. Fans of Kong and Mr Do enjoyed it as it was playable and the keyboard response was good - which is essential in this type of game.
The test of time:
Well this was a pretty good arcade type game on the ZX Spectrum and still plays quite well today. Your character moves very well over the rollercoaster tracks and once you get the hang of it running up and down the ladders is quite fun. If you like Kong or Mr Do then you can't go far wrong.
It also reminds me a little of Gilligan's Gold - another earlier game from Ocean I quite like.
We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download this one for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews and programmer interviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.
GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: February 1985
RELEASED BY: Ocean Software
DEVELOPER(S): Jonathan Smith, Nigel Alderton, F David Thorpe PRICE: £6.90
The Spectrum Gamer strikes back - the first two screens of arcade action:
Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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14/04/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Dragon Ninja - ZX Spectrum Classic Game [source]
ZX Spectrum Dragon Ninja
Well what can I say about this conversion of the famous arcade game by Data East?
Imagine developed a lot of good arcade conversions for the ZX Spectrum (with the likes of Green Beret and Hypersports) - but this was about as far from a good conversion as you could get.
Anyway - let's have a look at a 'classic game' that was actually pretty crap.
Just like in the arcade game president 'Ronnie' had been kidnapped by a bunch of ninja's (yes really!) and in stepped the bad dudes (you) to save him and the day I suppose. So - here we were with another 'right to left scrolling fight the bad guys and recue someone type deal'.
The game took inspiration from another classic arcade game, Shinobi. This inspiration was the fact that you could fight on the upper or lower level of the screen, jumping up and down between the upper and lower portion of the screen at will.
This feature worked pretty well in the arcade game but on the Speccy the controls are sticky and your 'bad dude' doesn't really react well to your keypresses.
The graphics are pretty poor; the game characters are pretty small and not well animated, the backgrounds bland and the scrolling is average at best.
Throwing kicks and punches in the relative direction of the bad guys seems to take them out - and jumping over a gap is a lottery in itself.
By 1988 games of this quality (and especially arcade conversions) were not acceptable - we all knew the Spectrum was capable of so much more.
If you want to complete this game take the following steps: Crouch, leg sweep, walk. Crouch, leg sweep, walk. Crouch, leg sweep, walk. Repeat until you either complete the game or you're brain freezes with boredom.
Give this one a miss - worth it for the comedy value only. Like the bad dudes say - 'It's bad'.
On Release:
On release this game was generally regarded as crap.
The Test Of Time:
After more than 20 years this game is still crap.
GENRE: Arcade Game (Beat em up)
RELEASE DATE: 1988
RELEASED BY: Imagine Software
DEVELOPER(S): Bill Harbison, Paul Owens, Mark R Jones
PRICE: £8.95 (About £8.90 to expensive)
I beat the first boss then die of boredom...
Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games
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31/03/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - F.I.R.E - Classic ZX Spectrum Game [source]
F.I.R.E ZX Spectrum
Now this is a lesser know total gem of a game from Czech publisher Fuxoft. Released in 1988 this arcade style game will have passed many of us by.
I've only just got around to playing it and my trigger finger is happy once more!
If you like arcade games and especially those in the style of Konami's Nemesis (or Gradius) the this game - which was no doubt inspired by those Konami classics, will appeal to you.
The loading screen grimly informs you that there are some places in the universe where you don't go unarmed...I like their style.
The game can be played in standard ZX Spectrum 48K mode or the enhanced Spectrum 128 mode. I urge you to play it in 128 mode as the menu music and in game effects are spot on and really capture that classic arcade feel.
For those of you familiar with games such as Gradius you will be instantly at home with the weapon powerup system within the game.
As you fly your craft over the right to left scrolling landscape waves of enemies appear along with bonus tokens. Collecting the tokens moves you across the 'powerup bar' which starts with Speed Up. So selecting Speed up makes your craft... speed up.
There are lots of powerups to gather such as multifire, lazer fire etc etc. Also as usual and in standing with good old arcade game tradtition there are end of level bosses to contend with who take multiple hits to destroy.
What more can I say? The sound effects are superb (and are even pretty good in 48K mode), the scrolling smooth and the variety of bad guys is excellent.
The game does throw surprises at you too but never seems to feel unfair - you can get yourself out of a tight spot with a little fancy flying and fast reflexes. The only downside is that you seem to lose all of your powerups when you lose a life - but it does give you plenty of opportunities to power back up pretty quicky.
For anyone that likes arcade action you can't go far wrong with F.I.R.E, which stands for Fast, Ingenious and Risky Elimination by the way.
Classic arcade action on the good old ZX Spectrum:
Arcade Games and Classic Games
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24/03/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Buccaneer - ZX Spectrum classic game [source]
ZX Spectrum Buccaneer
This scrolling arcade game was released by Firebird software for the ZX Spectrum in 1985.
In the tried and tested arcade shoot em up tradition it was a right to left horizontal scroller with waves upon waves of alien nasties to blow out of the sky.
At the beginning of the game your craft can only move up and down (as well as firing) - and the waves of aliens are pretty easy to dispose of.
You also had a limited shield to protect you - but too many hits by alien missiles or collisions with alien craft would cause your poor old Buccaneer to explode.
You also had a finite supply of fuel - so you had to destroy every alien nasty to complete the level. If you delayed too long then your fuel supply would be gone along with your plane.
Some levels removed your planes missiles - so you had to weave around frantically dodging the alien menace until you reached the end of that stage. At the beginning of the next level your missiles were restored. Hooray!
From time to time you could also dock with a mothership/supply ship type craft. This would replenish you shields and fuel making your fight against the alien oppressors that little bit easier.
The background scrolling was decent enough, with the hills on the horizon and clouds scrolling at different screens giving a nice enough parallax effect. With a little time and polish this is one arcade game that could have realised it's potential.
On Release:
This arcade game was hampered when it was released due to it's over use of colour which resulted in the dreaded attribute clash. Some of the sprites tended to flicker too. Still, for only £1.99 it was a decent enough slice of arcade pie that kept fans of scramble happy for 20 minutes.
The test of time:
Well Buccaneer still has an element of fun but really lacks overall polish. It can become repetetive quite quickly and to be honest there are better shoot em up style games for the ZX Spectrum - even those that were budget games.
Not bad and worth a go.
We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair ZX Spectrum hardware, but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Buccaneer. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.
GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1985
RELEASED BY: Firebird Software
DEVELOPER(S): Peter Gough
PRICE: £1.99
Check out the parallax scrolling in this lesser known arcade game...
Classic Games and Arcade Games
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22/03/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Pulsoids - ZX Spectrum classic game [source]
ZX Spectrum Pulsoids
Pulsoids was a decent breakout clone released by Spectrum budget games specialists Mastertronic in 1988.
Retailling at the standard budget price of £1.99 Pulsoids was good value for money if you liked a good old fashioned arcade game.
Instead of a bat 'n ball you had a bat and a bouncing lazer beam type thingy. As usual with these types of games you had to knock out the coloured 'bricks' by bouncing the beam/ball off your bat and into the blocks repeatedly.
Also as usual for a breakout clone knocking out different blocks yielded different powerups such as, multiple balls/beams, a longer 'bat', slow down the speed of play and so on.
Each screen had a different layout from the last - and of course some of the blocks were indestructable. You reached a new screen by destroying each block on the current level. You may be picking up here that the game used all of the tried and tested features of the likes of Arkanoid.
The gameplay was pretty fast and frenetic - and to be fair Pulsoids was a pretty good version of this type of game. At only £1.99 for your ZX Spectrum you couldn't go far wrong. Not bad.
The test of time:
This was a pretty good arcade game back then, and it's pretty good now. Easy to pick up and play and if you're a fan of breakout, Arkanoid or Krakout then you'll probably like it well enough. I don't know how many levels there are as I haven't played it right through to the end.
Give yourself a dose of Pusloids!
GENRE: Arcade Game (Breakout clone)
RELEASE DATE: 1988
RELEASED BY: Mirrorsoft
DEVELOPER(S): Simon Price and John F Cain
PRICE: £1.99 - UK
You set my pulsoids racing... classic arcade game action:
Classic Games and Arcade Games
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12/03/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Buccaneer - ZX Spectrum classic game [source]
ZX Spectrum Buccaneer
This scrolling arcade game was released by Firebird software for the ZX Spectrum in 1985.
In the tried and tested arcade shoot em up tradition it was a right to left horizontal scroller with waves upon waves of alien nasties to blow out of the sky.
At the beginning of the game your craft can only move up and down (as well as firing) - and the waves of aliens are pretty easy to dispose of.
You also had a limited shield to protect you - but too many hits by alien missiles or collisions with alien craft would cause your poor old Buccaneer to explode.
You also had a finite supply of fuel - so you had to destroy every alien nasty to complete the level. If you delayed too long then your fuel supply would be gone along with your plane.
Some levels removed your planes missiles - so you had to weave around frantically dodging the alien menace until you reached the end of that stage. At the beginning of the next level your missiles were restored. Hooray! From time to time you could also dock with a mothership/supply ship type craft. This would replenish you shields and fuel making your fight against the alien oppressors that little bit easier.
The background scrolling was decent enough, with the hills on the horizon and clouds scrolling at different screens giving a nice enough parallax effect. With a little time and polish this is one arcade game that could have realised it's potential.
On Release:
This arcade game was hampered when it was released due to it's over use of colour which resulted in the dreaded attribute clash. Some of the sprites tended to flicker too. Still, for only £1.99 it was a decent enough slice of arcade pie that kept fans of scramble happy for 20 minutes.
The test of time:
Well Buccaneer still has an element of fun but really lacks overall polish. It can become repetetive quite quickly and to be honest there are better shoot em up style games for the ZX Spectrum - even those that were budget games.
Not bad and worth a go.
We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair ZX Spectrum hardware, but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Buccaneer. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.
GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1985
RELEASED BY: Firebird Software
DEVELOPER(S): Peter Gough
PRICE: £1.99
Check out the parallax scrolling in this lesser known arcade game...
Classic Games and Arcade Games
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11/03/2010
Spectrum Games : Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Dave Rogers [source]
Dave Rogers
Dave Rogers (sometime credited as J Dave Rogers) developed arcade games such as Flatman and Money Grabber for the ZX81 before moving into ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC development.
With his musical background he went on to create many excellent and well known theme tunes (featuring some of the best AY Music) for arcade style games from companies such as Hewson and Firebird.
We were lucky enough to catch up with Dave who was more than happy to reminisce with us about his coding days...
1: What was the first computer you ever programmed on, and how old were you at the time?
The ZX81, and I was in my mid 20's.
2: How did you get into the games development scene? Did you have an interest in programming as well as music?
During the 1970's I was designing audio processing circuits and writing articles for electronics magazines. It was all analogue stuff, so I knew nothing about digital. I would occasionally see adverts in the magazines for early home-build computer kits, but I remember thinking "what would I want one of those for?"
Then a guy who happened to be working across the road, name of Colin Hogg, heard that I was into electronics, and he asked me if I could fix up a graphics extension board for his ZX81. I didn't have a clue about it, but he left the machine here for a while, so I gave it a try, and was instantly hooked on programming. I bought a ZX81 and put it into a larger case with (gasp) real keys!
3: Can you tell me a little about your musical background and knowledge?
My dad played guitar in various bands, playing the clubs, I joined in on Bass. Then I was in a few local bands, on Bass and Keyboards, playing mostly in Liverpool.
4: How was it working with the single channel Spectrum Beeper?
What can I say? Incredibly limiting would be an understatement. I always did the best I could with the 128k sound, trying to overcome it's limitations, but the beeper just felt like a waste of effort. The only time I did anything specifically for the beeper was for Cybernoid - a three channel tune for the 128k and a completely different one for the 48k.
The rest of the time I took the lazy way out and just squashed the three channel AY-chip data down into one channel for the beeper.
5: What other machines did you work on besides the Spectrum?
Mostly the Amstrad CPC series, and the Atari ST, then later with the Code Monkeys various consoles, Sega Megadrive, Gameboy, etc.
6: How good was it when the AY chip was utilised within the Spectrum 128?
Well anything was better than the monobeep.
7: I see you developed some games on the ZX81. How did you go from games programming to also creating game music?
Colin and myself started off writing games for the ZX81, as "type-ins" for magazines such as ZX Computing, My Computer, etc. Then we wrote a few games for the Amstrad CPC. Then Colin moved to Leeds, where he started up The Code Monkeys software house (which is still going strong). The prospect of doing a complete game by myself seemed a bit daunting, especially since Colin had written the graphics engines, so I sent a music demo to Hewson, and went on from there.
8: Which title (on any machine) are you most proud of?
Cybernoid, Netherworld, and Bear-a-Grudge. The latter was a free cassette on the cover of Sinclair User magazine, written by Chris Wood who was working at Hewson.
The rest of my games music I was never really happy with, apart from a few odd sections.
One thing I was quite pleased with was my driver, which filled as many sound channels as possible at any given time from the Speccy's available three. There were levels of priority, but no sound effect was ever completely overridden, and some would spread out to more channels if they became free. Some parts of the music would duck out, but then come back in at whole-bar divisions, so as not to sound too fragmented.
One channel of the Cybernoid music was actually just randomised notes, but timed and enveloped to sound like a percussion track, which made it sound a bit different every time it was played.
9: Which programmers or musicians impressed you most at the time?
There were so many great programmers pushing the limits of those early computers, I particularly remember being amazed at Sandy White's game Ant Attack. It looks simple now but at the time it was brilliant.
My favourite from all the music by other musicians that I converted across platforms was Universal Soldier. And speaking of which, I'd like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.
Some people have said that this game was "a rip off of Turrican 2". In fact, what happened was the game and the music were being developed AS Turrican 2, but when it was almost completed the title was changed to take advantage of an available movie tie-in. So it actually WAS Turrican 2 all along, not a rip off "of" it.
10: How was life at Hewson during the 1980's?
I worked entirely from home, so I had little contact with them. It was just phone calls, and video tapes arriving by post so I could watch the games and see where the sound would fit in. Then I'd post tapes back to them with the drivers and music.
There wasn't much discussion of the music and sound, most of it was just used without change. I only met Hewson once in person, and none of the programmers. I didn't make much money from it. I heard via one of his staff, that Hewson once said of me "he's very cheap for what he does!".
11: Finally - are you still active in the games industry today?
No, not at all. But I'm very happy to have been involved in it. It was a very interesting time. A unique period in technological history. I look back on the time I spent in speccy land with great pleasure. And it's great to see so much continuing interest in it.
I recently found a guy on YouTube who has re-made some of my music with better sounds. I love what he's done with Stormlord. If you go to YouTube and search for;- "Cybernoid 2 chip music" by CoolDudeClem "My Renditions of retro game music Part 2" by CoolDudeClem.
I'd like to thank "retrogamer" Keith Ainsworth for putting me in contact with Martin.
Cheers,Dave Rogers, Liverpool, March 2010.
Many thanks to Dave for taking the time to do this
Arcade Games and Classic Games
